Parton's Smoky Mountain 20th Anniversary

Friday April 1, 2005, was a big day for Dolly Parton who at that day marked the 20th anniversary of her Smoky Mountain theme park by uttering goals of doubling attendance and investing $160 million into it over the next two decades. During an interview with The Associated Press the star said that the future will probably include a Dollywood resort hotel in Pigeon Forge, plus other additions and maybe even a Dollywood II or Dollywood III.

"We are just getting started, and are going to keep dreaming and continuing to grow and prove that we are one of the best theme parks in the whole wide world," Parton said on the opening ceremony. Moreover, as part of the celebration a 1982 interview was also played in which Parton told Barbara Walters she had a dream for a theme park in the Tennessee hills that would be "sort of a fantasy city ... a Smoky Mountain fairy land."